Bleach 558 – Bad End

I may have to stand corrected about Bambietta having something else in store to reveal. She’s not dead yet, but seems to be beaten up pretty badly, and her Vollsandig has vanished as well. Perhaps I didn’t give Komamura enough credit; that only took him one strike, which detonated her bomb inside her. Unfortunately for Bambietta, it looks like she has more to fear from her four friends now that she is incapacitated. Her fate is left as a cliffhanger, but from the dialogue we can guess that they might be taking her power or absorbing her reiatsu in some way. It’s possible that the five of them planned an agreement out beforehand or implicitly understood that if any one of them lost they would be taken (or something else around those lines). They don’t exactly seem like the type to be team players and probably have no qualms about taking advantage of their allies’ misfortunes. This may have something to do with Giselle Gewelle’s powers too; there’s not a whole lot that “Z” can stand for, and whatever it is, Bambietta clearly does not want it. I feel a bit bad for her, but there’s no doubt that she would have done the same to the others if they were beaten first.

Komamura isn’t doing great either though, as his human form begins to wear off and his bankai disintegrates. It’s the sacrifice he made for the Gotei 13, or if you look at it another way, him throwing away his human life for the sake of revenge. He also loses his anthropomorphic form, become a full wolf before being carried away by his lieutenant. Komamura’s grandfather collapses as well while thanking him, but I’m not completely clear on what happened here. Although Iba says that they will beat Yhwach together, Komamura may or may not have lost his powers already. If he no longer has his temporary immortality however, his role in this war has probably come to an end and it’s not likely he’ll actually be able to face Yhwach. Regardless, Komamura definitely got his time to shine, even though it was brief. Next up is Rukia and Renji, who are rocketing through the air towards Soul Society at this moment. They have had their rest, their training, their shiny new outfits, and hopefully they will be ready to kick some quincy ass.

So Komamura is more or less now just permanently an ordinary wolf now and that his grandfather is gloating about the fact that he’s fallen victim to his clans habit of revenge and is now a mindless beast driven by it.

My favorite character is more or less gone. I don’t care what happens now to be honest, it could reach Naruto levels of clusterfuck for all I care

Komamura’s lieutenant. The only lieutenant alive at this point that we know the least about. We don’t remember his name, we don’t know his backstory, and we don’t even know the name of his Shikai. Why is he still here?

He’s what readers and writers like to call a minor/supporting character. They are characters in a narrative that are not focused on by the primary storyline. Sometimes supporting characters may develop a complex back-story of their own, but this is usually in relation to the main character(s), rather than entirely independently. They appear very frequently in many works of fiction.

This might be a difficult concept for you to wrap your head around, but NOT EVERY CHARACTER IN A WORK OF FICTION NEEDS TO HAVE A DETAILED BACKSTORY. There are tons of works of fiction out there with a lot of supporting characters that don’t get fleshed out. That doesn’t stop the series from being good. Hell, even A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings have a large number of supporting characters that don’t get fleshed out but that doesn’t stop either from being good.

This is why I can’t stand people for criticizing Bleach for “having way too many characters”. It’s like they never heard of supporting characters before. Bleach isn’t beyond criticism, but make your criticisms valid for fuck’s sake.

@spikerman87: The problem is that while you may not be serious (although it’s more likely you’re just saying this as an excuse), there are plenty of dumbasses out there who barely even read the series and will simply use that statement as their own opinion. The most common complaint I hear from casual readers of Bleach is that it “has way too many characters”, which is one of the most retarded criticisms one can make. Even if you’re not serious, you’re propagating further stupidity. Get it now?

Well, as overpowered as Komamura’s ability seemed in the short-term, I had a feeling that it’d have a catch in the long-run. This may end up getting him kicked out of the Gotei 13, especially since Central 46 is run by hedonistic dipshits. I can see Kyouraku vouching for him, but even still, can Komamura even use his Zanpakuto anymore? Maybe something like this: http://images.wikia.com/darksouls/images/9/95/Great_Grey_Wolf_Sif_01.png. Even if he still has Shinigami powers, something tells me that he’s been severely gimped as a result.

As for Bambi, it’s pretty apparent that she’s screwed.

Can’t wait for Rukia and Renji to return. Hopefully Rukia received some brand new nifty techniques from her training in the Royal Palace.

Time for Rukia!!!!!!!!!!!!! BANKAI!!!!!!! Seriously though her and Renji are going to bulldoze these bums. I think there around Ichigo’s level. They took only one day to get back to the soul society which is the same time Ichigo is going to take.

Can’t wait to see how bad ass there going to be.

Those cloaks are clearly hiding there new outfits. Ugh can’t freaking wait.

Hope you guys realize that there going to be around freaking Aizen level at this point..

I think for some reason Renji is going to fight that fire guy. Id rather Rukia fight him but I think Kubo is going to have her fight the invisible person that one shotted her before.

I wouldn’t go as far to say they are at Ichigo’s level. Renji and Rukia may stand a chance against some of the grunts, but would definitely have a hard time with some of the major villains if the past chapters of Bleach is an indicator.

I think Renji will end up fighting Nodt and since Byakuya wasn’t around to receive Urahara’s pill I would assume that he still has Byakuya’s bankai so if Renji could defeat him while he has Byakuya’s bankai in a sense it would be like him also finally overcoming Byakuya

So an already quite formidable fighter gives his all to temporarily transcend his opponent’s power and defeat them, and loses everything once he’s unleashed his most powerful attack.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the THIRD time that Kubo has hit us with this particular plot development? I mean, when Ishida did it, it was cool and novel and lead to some interesting character introspection, even if it did kick off his continuing battle with irrelevance. When Ichigo did it, it was… a bit of an ass-pull, frankly, but it did finally bring that seemingly endless Arrancar arc to a close.

Now Koma’s pulling the exact same s**t? Really? So instead of unveiling a bankai from a captain we haven’t seen before, of which there are still plenty, we’re just gonna reread the same panels we’ve already seen twice, but with a couple different faces in them?

I believe that what it occuring, with the father, is that he is passing on, or being reincarnated. He states that he can now rest, and, if you recall, their clan were dogs as punishment. They were cursed to be dogs in the afterlife, so that they could never reincarnate and return to earth. At the end, the father eats the heart. I would guess that, in doing so, the father would reincarnate, and Komamura would take his place, as a dog that cannot die, and can never pass on. It would be his punishment for choosing veangence.